PENTICTON – The man accused of killing two people and injuring one more in a triple shooting was in Penticton today for the first day of his trial.
John Ike Koopmans says he is innocent, but Crown counsel Frank Dubenski will call upon a couple dozen witnesses as he tries to convince the jury that the murders were planned and deliberate.
READ MORE: Princeton victims and alleged shooter were friends
The triple shooting happened nearly two years ago in a home on Old Hedley Road just outside of Princeton. Koopmans, 51, was apparently friends with the two who died. In the opening statements, Crown told the 12-member jury Koopmans may have felt betrayed, believing the victims broke into his home and stole from him.
Crown says 43-year-old Robert Keith Wharton was shot three times in the head. His partner, 32-year-old Rosemary Fox, suffered gunshot wounds to her head, chest and ankle. She was a mother of three.
“My world crashed. The look in my daughter’s eyes, it broke me. She is a spitting image of her, walks and talks just like her,” says Fox’s ex-husband Rob Delves.
In the agreed statement of facts, the gunman was only 18 to 30 inches away from Wharton and Fox when they were killed.
The trial is expected to last at least three weeks and the jury will hear from more than 20 witnesses – most of them members of the RCMP – including a firearms expert, blood splatter expert and lead investigators.
The first witness to take the stand was an officer from the major crimes unit, Corporal Timothy Russell, who says Koopmans was found in a camper on Wharton’s property the next day.
Two different guns were found nearby Wharton’s home: one was recovered in the Similkameen River by the RCMP Dive Team five months after the shooting. and another gun was found nearby the home more than a year later. It is unclear which gun is responsible for killing Wharton and Fox, and who the guns belonged to.
The third person in the home who was shot but not killed, Bradley Martin, was a friend of the couple. Martin was shot in the chest and managed to escape. He is expected to take the stand next Monday.
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